The role of the long-term acute care hospital.

Long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) have a niche role in the health care system. They specialize in caring for patients who are ventilator-dependent, are on inpatient dialysis, or have multi-organ or multi-system failure, postsurgical or organ transplant complications, complex wounds that need care, or traumatic or acquired brain injury. Many physicians are unfamiliar with the work done by the interdisciplinary teams that serve these facilities.This article describes LTACHs and their approach to care.